Percy Jackson & The Heir of the Hearth
by PresentingToYou
Summary: Shortly after learning who he truly is, Percy is sent on a dangerous quest to save the gods from destroying each other. (Story has major changes to some characters)
1. Chapter 1

I think it was safe to say the first 17 years of my life were pretty normal. I went to school (got kicked out of a few), I got passing grades (barely scraped by a few times, but still passing), and even played a few sports ( I sucked at mostly everything but swimming, which some idiots would say isn't a real sport). For someone with ADHD and ADD, I was doing pretty good with my life so far, if you asked me. So, yeah, a pretty normal life. I'm not sure how my life would have turned out if it had stayed normal, but there was no way of finding out, now. Besides, this new life did have a few perks.

I'll start from the beginning. The day everything changed. I was walking to my best friend's, Grover, house while eating my mom's delicious blue cookies. That was also a normal thing in my life. See, my mom had been married to a disgusting, smelly, bastard named Gabe and he had told her there was no such thing as blue food. To prove him wrong, my mom went out of her way to make blue food whenever she could. It was a delicious screw you to him.

Eventually she grew tired of Gabe's bull and divorced him, but by then blue food had become a regular thing to us, so we kept it up. There were no complaints from me.

Anyway, back to the ending of normalcy. It started at Grover's house. Nico and Grover were playing Call of Duty.

Nico and Grover had been my best friends for a long time. I had met Grover when I was 12, he was being bullied by some girl and I told her to leave him alone, then proceeded to shove her into a fountain. It earned me a month of detention, but at least a great relationship came out of it. Nico and I had met in Greek class when he was a weirdo who was obsessed with mythomagic. He started out the year asking questions like _"Does Zeus really have 6,000 attack power?"_ And I had found his weirdness hilarious so naturally I befriended him.

"You guys suck." I stated as I watched them get killed back to back.

"They're spawn trapping! There's nothing we can do." Grover defended. We probably would have spent some time arguing over it, but we heard the sound of glass breaking downstairs.

"The hell was that?" Nico questioned as we heard a similar sound.

"Come on." I said as I left Grover's room and headed downstairs. The scene that lay before me was not one I had expected, at all.

Grover's caretaker, Leneus, was having a sword fight with a guy who was probably only a couple years older than me. Leneus has always seemed like a mean, grumpy old man, so I had never expected him to be into sword fighting.

"What the-" Nico started, causing Leneus to turn towards us.

"Grover! Get them out of here." He shouted, quickly, before parrying the strike of the man. The man, quickly struck again, then used his foot to sweep Leneus off his feet when he blocked it. Leneus fell hard, letting a painful whimper, like he had just blown his back out. I don't think sword fighting was meant for him. The guy turned towards us and gave us a creepy smile.

"Well, I was only expecting you, but to have all three of you here is marvelous." He said, pointing his sword at us. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I knew this had to be one of the worst pranks I had ever seen.

"Grover, who the hell is this guy?" I asked. Grover's face was red and he looked nervous.

"You'll find out soon enough!" The man started running towards us, but before he could reach us, the floorboards broke, flying into the air in all directions, nearly shanking me in the process. A wall of sand began forming around the man until we couldn't see him anymore.

"Go! Run, now! Out the back door!" Grover shouted, pushing me down the rest of the stairs. What the hell was going on? How did sand just ride out of the ground like that? I might have spent time asking these questions, but the sound of a whistle in my ear made them ring. Three seconds later, Grover's front door was being kicked in. Three more men came in, brandishing swords and axes that looked like they could slice all of us to pieces.

"GO!" Grover yelled again and this time I listened. As we ran towards his backyard, more floorboards popped up and another sand wall was created, stopping the men from following us.

Even though, it didn't seem like the men were behind us, we still ran, and ran, and ran some more.


	2. Chapter 2

"I c-can't. I can't run anymore! Please. Enough." Nico pleaded, stopping with his hands on his knees. He was wheezing and probably three seconds from passing out. I wasn't surprised, Nico was probably the laziest person I knew. Even his motto was _"With great power, comes great need to take a nap."_

I had a lot more stamina than Nico, and even I was pretty tired. "Yeah, Grover. I'm sure we lost them."

"We can stop running, but keep walking." We obliged.

"Wh- Who were they? What was that? The sand-?" Nico panted out.

"There's no time to explain, right now. We need to get inside. Somewhere?"

"Do you even know where we're going?" I asked.

Grover's face turned slightly red," Truth or lie?"

"You don't even know where we're going!" Nico said, stopping in his tracks.

"Just stay here. I'll be back." Grover responded. He then sat cross legged on the ground. He closed his eyes and two seconds later he was gone. I couldn't believe my eyes. Grover had just merged into the ground. I looked at Nico. He looked at me. We looked at the ground. What the hell was going on? I don't know how long we sat there dumbfounded, but Grover came back and hopped up like he hadn't just become one with the dirt.

"There's a motel that way." He said easily, pointing north.

"You're not just gonna skip past that like it didn't happen!" Nico told him, pointing at the ground.

"Guys, please, come on. I'll explain once we're inside." He begged, giving us a pleading look.

"Fine." We listened to Grover and followed him until we reached the Peraz Motel. It looked shady, but it's not like we really had much of a choice right now.

"Now, explain." Nico demanded before Grover could even close our door room.

"Jeez, Nico, give me a sec." He locked the door and took a seat, letting out a sigh. "Okay, So, we're not normal."

"Obviously!" Nico retorted."

"What do you mean by we?" I questioned.

"Just let me explain before you guys say anything. I'm Grover Underwood, descendent of Gaea, an-"

"Gaea?"

"No interruptions, Nico!"

" _Soorry_."

"She was the earth goddess, so that's why I can do what I did with the sand and going into the ground. I was sent here in sixth grade by your fathers to protect you. Of course, they hoped you would never need it, but there was no guarantee." I had never even met my father, and Grover was telling me that he sent him to protect me. The same guy who I had fought multiple people for because he was being bullied. The same guy who was afraid of the dark and cramped spaces.

"Your fathers are Poseidon and Hade-."

"You're full of crap! This joke isn't funny, Grover." I interrupted.

"It's not a joke, Percy. Why would I joke about something like this?" I couldn't think of any reason to come up wit a joke as bad as this one,but it had to be.

"Greek gods don't exist." Grover looked at the sky like he expected me to be struck down.

"Be careful of what you say, Percy. They do exist. If they didn't, none of us would be here right now."

"Whatever."

"You're both extremely powerful demigods, and your dad's knew that. They knew eventually monsters and enemies would come for you, and with everything going on right now, they wouldn't be able to protect you. That's why they sent me, to help you when and if the time came where you were targeted."

"So, you've been lying and pretending to be our friend for 6 years?" Nico asked, looking beyond hurt.

"No! I am your friend. You guys are my best friends, the reason I'm around doesn't change that. I'm your friend and your protector."

"Why wait? Why are you just telling us about this now, if you knew all along?" Grover had better had good answers for this.

"Once you know, that's when the monsters start coming. It was better to keep you in the dark. Your mom never wanted you to know, Percy. And Nico, Bianca knew, but s-."

"Don't talk about her." Nico's sister had passed away in a car accident a few years ago. Nico _never_ liked to talk about it.

"So, now what? We're just supposed to give up our lives and go on the run?"

"No. We're gonna go to Camp Half-Blood." We didn't have time to question him and ask what the hell camp half blood was as we heard a high pitched scream outside. With the way this day was going, I knew there wasn't going to be anything good out there. Let's just say, if I had bet a million dollars on that statement, I'd have a million dollars.


	3. Chapter 3

There it stood, seven foot tall, big, and ugly. A cyclops, a giant green cyclops. It's bottom teeth were sticking out in different directions, and they were the brightest shade of yellow I had ever seen. He was a nasty green color and I was pretty sure his fingernails were about a day away from turning the same color. His eye was dark brown like the long hair that he had on his head. It looked like a bigger, uglier version of the Hulk, except he had on blue shorts. It made me wonder what store he brought them from, you definitely couldn't get them from your local cedar market.

I didn't dwell on it too much as I realized the thing was gonna kill the girl it had in his hand.

"Grover!" I shouted.

"What?" He asked nervously.

"Go help her!" I looked at him as if it were obvious.

"B-b-but t-that's-" I didn't hear the rest of Grover's stuttering because I ran out the door and towards the cyclops, not knowing what I could possibly do. As I got closer the rancid smell of the cyclops filled my nostrils. Jeez, did this thing lay in shit all day or something?

It looked like the cyclops was jumping with glee at the fact that it caught the girl. He lift his arm up as if he was about to eat the girl and I did the first thing I could think of. I blame the ADHD.

I picked up a giant rock and threw it at the cyclops," Hey, smelly, put her down!" I admit it wasn't the best insult, but that didn't matter because as I finished the sentence the rock smacked him right in the eye. He released the girl and covered his eye with his hands while crying out in pain. I ran as fast as I could to catch the girl and luckily she landed safely in my arms instead of hitting the concrete street. She had her eyes shut tight as if she was waiting for the pain to come.

From what I could see, she was really pretty. She had long blonde hair that curled like a princess's, and was tanned. Typical california girl look. Then she opened her eyes. They were pretty, but intense at the same time. It gave her a _I-can-easily-take-you-down_ kind of look, but still I liked them. They were so pretty I was contemplating whether my new favorite color was gray.

"Hi." I said cheerily as I gave her a toothy smile.

Before she could do or say anything the cyclops bellowed," I will crush you, you puny human, and then use your bones as toothpicks!"

"Wouldn't you crush my bones if you crushed me?" I asked him and he made an angry roar before making an attempt to grab me. I bolted towards our motel room, the girl still in my arms.

"No, Percy! Get him to the grass!" Grover called out from behind a car. Since when did he get there? Instead of questioning his motives, I made a U-turn and ran towards the woods. The cyclops followed.

As soon as the cyclops was completely standing on the grass, it started sinking. As the grass got lower and lower the giant went along with it, shouting out threats. It kept sinking and sinking until the cyclops' voice and body were gone, covered by sand.

"That...was awesome! Nice, Grover." I shouted as I ran towards him.

He looked around panicked,"Shh, Percy, people might hear you." He said."Come on let's get in the room."

We ran into the room, grover locked the door, and closed the curtains making the room surprisingly dark. Nico turned on the lamp near the bed.

"What was that?" Nico asked, looking like he couldn't believe what he just saw.

"A cyclops." The girl said simply. I looked down, how I had forgotten she was in my arms will forever be a mystery to me." Can you..um...put me down?"

"Oh, right." I put her down knowing my face was probably a dark red color.

"Yeah, I know, it was a cyclops, but what was it doing here?" Nico said.

"I don't know. I was going through the woods when I came across him, I tried to sneak past him, but he had really good hearing. I got this far before he finally caught me, even with my hat on." She explained.

"Why does it matter if you had your hat on?" I questioned. What could possibly be so special about a hat?

"It's a hat of invisibility." She said as she reached towards her back pocket. Whatever she thought was there obviously wasn't there as a frown came onto her face. "I think I dropped it out there. I have to go get it."

I peeked through the curtains, it looked like the coast was clear. "Okay, I'll go with you."

We walked out the door cautiously with Grover telling us that he'd look out for anything suspicious. We walked towards the street where the cyclops had attacked."So, what's your name, by the way?" I asked her as she picked up an orange Yankees baseball cap.

She looked at me as if she was deciding whether she could trust me or not. I guess she decided she could, I mean I did just risk my life for her. "Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."

"Percy Jackson. Nice to meet you." I stuck my hand out for her to shake and she looked a little hesitant before putting her hand in mine.

"Likewise." I smiled at her and with that we walked back to the motel room.

—

"So your mom is Athena, and you're trying to get to Camp Half-Blood." I repeated after Annabeth explained it, much more elaborately. Annabeth nodded.

"I haven't had time to say this, but this.. is so cool." Nico stated as he layed back on the bed. Cool? Finding out monsters are trying to kill us and the Greek Gods were real were definitely not on my list of being cool.

"Well, I know what I wanna do now." I said.

"What's that?" Grover asked.

"Go home." I stood from the chair and made my way to the door. I was about three steps away before Grover and Nico stood in front of the door, blocking the exit.

"You can't go, Percy." They said at the same time; weird.

"Why not?"

"They'll come after you now. The monsters, now that you know they probably won't stop especially since you don't know how to defend yourself yet." Annabeth explained.

Well, if Grover and Nico hadn't already stopped me, that definitely would have. I sat back down in my chair, defeated. "So, what now?" I asked, glumly.

"We go to Camp Half-Blood." Nico replied excitedly. Was I the only one having second thoughts about this?


	4. Chapter 4

After sitting in the taxi for who knows how long, I learned a couple of things. Annabeth had ADHD like Nico and I, and sitting three ADHD kids in a car for a long time may be the stupidest thing that anybody could ever do. When the guy finally stopped Nico and I practically jumped out of the car eager to get some fresh air. The driver looked at us weirdly, but Grover gave him the money and he drove away.

"Now where do we go?" I asked and we all turned towards Annabeth expectantly.

"No idea." She answered. Grover had forgotten the address, long ago, like an idiot. We all stood there looking pretty stupid for a while before Grover decided what to do.

"I'll be back." He said then walked over to the grass, sitting cross legged before dissolving into the ground. I will probably never get used to that.

Grover was gone for a total of two seconds before a monster showed up. It was like it was waiting for us to be alone.

Were any of these monsters normal sized? The thing was huge. It looked like it belonged in one of those Strongest Man In the World episodes. The thing had muscles all over with hair that covered it all. His legs were covered with a regular pair of blue jeans, which I was fine with. His top half was scary enough. He had long horns on top of his head. Oddly, it reminded me of something I just didn't know why. He leaned down as if he was getting ready for a quarterback to yell "Hike." Before I could register what he was about to do, he charged. He was heading right towards us, and all I could do was stand there frozen in fear.

"Run!" Annabeth shouted as she turned around and sprinted down the street. That shook me out of my shock because I turned around and followed behind her, Nico following my example. Even though, the monster was far away at first, he was gaining on us. Then it all clicked, why the thing, or should I say Minotaur, looked so familiar. I remember in greek where we learned about the minotaur. Wasn't this thing killed like 3000 years ago? I took a liking to the minotaur, so I did extra research on it, of course now that it was trying to kill me, I doubt I will be doing another report on him, let alone any report.

"When he gets close jump to the side!" I shouted. From what I remembered the minotaur could only go in one direction, and that was forward.

When the minotaur was close I dove to the side and he flew right past me. Luckily, Annabeth and Nico did the same. It continued to race on and eventually came to a stop. I leaned on a tree to catch my breath for a few seconds, running from a minotaur was hard work.

"Percy!" Nico shouted, which caused me to look up only to see the minotaur charging towards me arms spread out wide ready to catch me if I tried to dive to the left or right. Not knowing what to do, I stood there, they definitely didn't tell you the minotaur learned from his mistakes on wikipedia. I looked behind me at the tree I'd been leaning on, the branches were low enough to grab onto. So, while thinking _I'm going to die_ I grabbed two big branches, ran up the tree, and did a backflip off of it as the minotaur slammed horn first into the tree.

As it tried to pull its horn out of the tree I stood there in shock. Now if I was watching this on Youtube, I'd probably be thinking that was awesome, but the only thing running through my mind was _I survived._

A loud snap broke me out of my thoughts and as the minotaur bellowed in pain at the snap of one of his horns, he swung his arm back, hitting me square in the chest. I flew a few feet and hit my head on a rock. My vision blurred and everything began spinning. I could see the Minotaur heading towards me, but I was way too dizzy to try and move.

"Hey, ugly!" I heard Annabeth shout. The Minotaur turned to her and let out his hot breath. He walked in their direction. I stood up and stumbled slightly as my eyes finally started to cooperate. I ran to the tree and pulled the horn with all my strength until it came free.

"Hey! What are you worried about her for? Your fight's right here!" I shouted. The Minotaur looked annoyed. He looked at me, then Annabeth, then turned back to me. He looked ready to snap me like a twig. He breathed heavily through his nose and bent down again.

With the horn in my hand, I awkwardly got in a battle stance. He charged, even though he was already close, and I did the first thing that came to mind. I rolled, came up on my knee, and drove the horn into his side. I was ready to run incase the minotaur tried to grab me, but instead he clawed at the horn until he turned into gold dust and blew away with the wind. The horn dropped into the grass and I picked it up. I stood and walked towards Nico and Annabeth, completely drained.

"Well, Nico you were right about one thing." I said.

"W-what's that, Percy?" He stuttered still looking in the direction where the minotaur had been.

"With great power...comes great need to take a nap." And I blacked out.

 **A/N: I decided to make how Percy got the Minotaur horn similar to how he got it in the book. Keep the tradition up!**


	5. Chapter 5

"You must save me, Perseus Jackson." The woman said. She looked old and weak, but I could tell she was beautiful when she was younger. She had pretty chocolate brown eyes and long curly dark brown hair. Although she seemed powerless, she had a strong and powerful aura around her. She sat in a dangling cage, in a white dress that went below her knees. She had a black poncho that covered the top half of the dress.

"Who are you?" I asked. I was surprised at how my voice sounded so...normal. Usually it sounded distant, as if I was standing a 100 yards away from my voice. Now, it was normal, like I wasn't dreaming.

"I am Hestia. You must listen to me, Perseus, I don't have much time." She stopped for a few seconds as if she expected me to say something. I didn't.

"You must travel west. You will find help in the west, and they will help you save me. It is important that you save me, Perseus. The olympians are destroying themselves, and that is what they want." She explained.

"That is what who wants?" I questioned.

"You will find out in due time, young demigod. I have been waiting for you for many, many years. You are the only one who can save me, Perseus. Remember, you must travel west and find help. I must go, they are approaching, but I must warn you. They have used me to make a child. You must save him, also. If you do not, he will be the destruction of us all. Goodbye, Perseus. I hope to see you, again. Be ready to face the danger that awaits you." She gave me a small smile and then I was gone.

As I opened my eyes, I shot up quickly. A little too quickly, my vision blurred and I felt as if I was about to fall, but I gripped the bed until the feeling went away and my vision cleared." _Percy_!" Grover and Nico shouted as they walked into the room. Before I could say anything, I was enveloped in a bear hug by them both.

"Jeez, you guys act like I've been sleeping for days." I said. The sky looked the same as it did when I first fell asleep.

"Percy, you've been out for _two_ days." Grover told me. To say I was shocked would have been an understatement.

"What?" I asked.

"Yeah, we've been worried, but Percy, you should see this place. It's amazing." Of course Nico was quick to change the subject.

"Well, I need some fresh air, can we go outside?" My legs were stiff and my arms felt weak, and I didn't like the feeling. I pulled the covers off of me and swung my legs off the bed. I stumbled a little as I took my first steps in two days. Nico quickly stabled me and I put my arm around his shoulder. We walked outside and I admit the place did look great. Greenest grass I've ever seen, and the sun beamed down on the whole place as if it was being controlled. There were kids walking around in Camp Half-Blood t-shirts, which I noticed Grover and Nico had on. Some were playing volleyball, walking around, and even shooting arrows. There was an open-aired pavilion, an amphitheatre, and a circular arena. This definitely was not what I had in mind when I thought about camps. There was a fire pit near the cabins, but it looked like it hadn't been used in a long time.

Grover and Nico must've noticed me looking at it,"That's supposedly Hestia's place. She tends to the fire. But some of the campers told me she's been missing for nearly 18 years." Grover explained. 18 years? When Hestia said she'd been waiting many years, I didn't think it was _that_ long. I felt bad, for a moment I had completely forgotten about the goddess.

"We need to talk, guys. Where's Annabeth?" For some reason I felt as if she needed to be apart of this, too.

"We can talk later, you need to meet Chiron." Nico told me.

"And don't forget about Mr.D." Grover added in.

"Who could?"

"Guys, this is _urgent_." I pleaded as they dragged me towards the big house."Percy, you just woke up from sleeping for two days, you can't have something that important to say, it can wait." Nico responded and they continued to pull me alongside them. They had no idea.

When we entered there were two men sat at a table playing some card game. There were two invisible people playing with them and after what I went through I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.

There was a man in a wheelchair with a blanket over his legs, he had a thin beard, a tweed jacket, and thinning brown hair. While the other guy had curly black hair, that looked closed to purple, a Hawaiian shirt on, and a forming beer belly. He looked like he'd been drinking since he took his first steps as a baby.

Nico and Grover led me over to the table," Hey, Chiron, look! Percy woke up." Grover said happily.

"Great, another one," The guy, who I figured was Mr.D, grunted, he looked extremely unhappy. From the way Nico and Grover had grimaced when speaking about him, he had to be the one they were talking about.

The guy who I figured was Chiron turned around,"Ah, Perseus Jackson, you have finally awoken. You sure did make your friends worry." He smiled at me. He seemed nice enough, unlike Mr.D who sat unhappily sipping on a diet coke.

"I am Chiron."

"Nice to meet you, call me Percy." We shook hands and he gestured for me to sit down. Honestly, I didn't want to, there were only two free seats and the invisible people sat there. Sitting on an invisible person was not something on my wishlist. Not wanting to be rude, though, I sat down anyway. The floating cards dropped on the table. I guess that was a winning hand because Mr.D sighed dramatically and dropped his cards on the table. I guess he was used to losing, which was a surprise because he looked he could outgamble anybody. Chiron put down his cards, also.

"Now, Percy, do you remember everything that happened?" He asked.

"Yeah, the minotaur, the passing out, the-" I stopped myself from saying the dream. I knew I could trust Chiron but I wanted to go over this with Grover, Nico, and Annabeth before deciding who else to tell.

"The telling me I was right." Nico boasted. If he didn't save me, I probably would've replied with some smart retort.

"Whatever, Nico."

"Please take this pointless conversation elsewhere. And I suppose I _must_ say welcome to Camp Half-Blood. Now get out before I send you back to your father, as a dolphin." His eyes lit up as he was probably thinking about turning me into a dolphin. Who the hell was this guy?

"Come, Percy, I will give you a tour." Chiron said before I could say anything to Mr.D.

"Who the hell does that guy think he is?" I scoffed as we walked out of the big house.

"Be careful of what you say, Percy. Mr.D is just not happy that he was sent here as a punishment by his father." Chiron explained as if it justified the way Mr.D acted.

"Whose his father?" I asked.

"Zeus." He replied simply. That guy was related to Zeus, the almighty powerful Zeus? I tried to think of all the gods whose name started with a D. I came to the conclusion that only one god could look like he could down 3 kegs of beer before I could drink a sip.

"That's Dionysus, the wine dude?"

"Names are a powerful thing. I advise that you not use them so freely." Chiron responded.

"And Mr.D doesn't like it when you call him ' _the wine dude'_ so try not use it around him." Grover added in. Nico shuddered as if he felt the wrath of Mr.D and he probably did.

With all that being said Chiron started on the tour. We passed a strawberry field, an armory, stables; and I swear I saw a horse with wings in it. He told me stuff like the pavilion was where we ate and there are battles in the arena, and no, they weren't battles to the death. Still, what kind of camp had battles with REAL weapons anyway. We passed the kids playing volleyball, kids shooting arrows, and kids just walking around not really doing anything.

Chiron showed me a huge forest where they had Capture The Flag, chariot races, and campers went to fight monsters.

"They fight monsters willingly?" I asked bewildered.

"Yes, it's good practice." He answered.

After that we walked over to the cabins and they all looked completely different. They were placed in a 'U' shape. There were twelve of them. Each had a large number above the door with odds on the left and evens on the right. Number nine looked like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven looked as if it was made of solid gold. In the center of the field was the firepit, Hestia's fire pit. There were two cabins in front and they were bigger than the rest. Cabin one was the biggest of the twelve, lightning bolts seemed to streak across the big bronze doors. Cabin two walls were carved with images of peacocks and it seemed more feminine. Without having to ask I already knew whose Cabins they were. Zeus and Hera's. The cabin that I liked the most was cabin three, though. It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long, low, and solid. The outer walls were studded with pieces of seashell and coral. Cabin five was a blood red color, and whoever painted it did a terrible job. Cabin eleven looked like the most normal cabin. Well, it was the only cabin that looked like a regular camp cabin. The wood was peeling and it looked old. Two boys about my age with orange hair and mischievous smiles walked out and they looked as if they were capable of being professional thieves.

"Percy, your cabin is number three. I must say, I'm surprised that, both you and Nico have managed to survive this long on your own." I guess he saw my face because he continued,"Do not mistake my words, Percy. You and Nico are _very_ powerful demigods and the gods fear that you both will cause...problems." What was that supposed to mean?

"What kind of problems?" I could tell there was a whole lot more than what Chiron was telling me.

"In time, both you and Nico will know." He said. Honestly, I was getting tired of people telling me in time I will know. Why couldn't they just tell me now?

Before I could dwell on it Chiron stood. Yes, I know he's in a wheelchair, but the blanket fell off his lap to reveal horse legs. Horse freaking legs. All this mythical creatures stuff was giving me a headache.

After Chiron galloped away it was just Nico, Grover, and me. Finally.

"Guys, we need to talk. Where's Annabeth?"


	6. Chapter 6

"Percy, I'm sure it's just a dream." Grover responded nervously. I'm sure he knew it wasn't 'just a dream.' I gave Grover a flat look, he of all people knew what type of dreams I had. This was far from the regular, which consisted of a donut chasing me yelling 'It's payback time!'

"I seriously doubt that. Demigods don't have normal dreams. I think Hestia really does want Percy to save her." Annabeth said.

"Thanks, Annabeth, I was hoping somebody would say that." Grover replied sarcastically, starting an argument between the two.

"So, what are we gonna do about it?" It was the first thing Nico had said since I told them about my dream so, of course, everyone turned towards him.

"We have to go save her!" I told them, confidently.

"Percy, you don't even know how to actually fight, yet. You can't just go around saving goddesses just because you beat one monster." Grover said. Well, that sure didn't dampen my mood. I guess Grover was right, in a way, it still doesn't change how I feel, though.

"Stop being such a party pooper, Grover. All we have to do is stay a couple days, get some training, steal some food and supplies, then we can head out. All within a week! It'll be great." Nico responded. It seemed like a good idea to me.

"I don't know, guys. Maybe we should tell Chiron." Annabeth suggested. I'm sure we all looked at her a little weirdly. I mean I've been kicked out of a my fair share of schools for reasons I'd rather not say, so going to tell an adult, even if he was half horse, was not something I wanted to do. I'm sure Nico felt the same as me.

"Why?" I asked.

"It could possibly benefit us more than stealing food and supplies and Chiron will most likely know what we're going against so he'll give us proper training. Plus, I heard if you leave camp without permission you could be kicked out and never allowed to return again." She answered. Does she always find a way to stump people? She had pretty good reasons too, I'd never tell her that, though.

"Maybe we should tell Chiron." Nico looked thoughtful. From what I've learned about Nico over the past couple of years, he's pretty stubborn so for him to agree with Annabeth maybe it was a good idea to tell him.

"Then I guess we're telling Chiron." I said. I stood and dusted the sand off my butt.

"Are you sure about this, Percy?" Grover was biting his nails again, something he did when he was scared or nervous. One thing you should know about Grover is he gets scared easily, and somehow we always find ourselves in a situation where Grover feels the need to bite his fingernails.

"Nope! He can't do anything that bad, though, right?"

"Don't jinx it, Percy! You know you're known for that." Grover responded while Nico agreed wholeheartedly; some friends.

10 minutes. That's how long we've been waiting for Chiron to get back from his conversation with Mr. D. We'd told Chiron about my dream and almost immediately he excused himself and went in the back with Mr.D.

"They're starting to scare me." Grover said.

"Grover you were scared before we even came here." I pointed out. Grover glared but didn't say anything. We waited a little while longer before Chiron came back in the room. If I had liked him, I probably would have asked where Mr.D went, but I didn't.

"Percy, this information you have given us is very, very important. Now, before I continue, I must ask, are you leaving anything out?"

"No, sir." I told him.

"Okay, Percy, we would like to give you a quest, but I suggest you stay a little while and train for it because believe me it will be hard to complete and the monsters you encounter will be far worse than the minotaur." He explained.

"I would like that." I said.

"Okay then, Percy. Since I'm assuming this is your team," he looked at Annabeth, Grover, and Nico," I will ask some of our camp's best fighters to train you. Then we can see how well you have improved in Friday's game of Capture The Flag."

Friday. That's four days from now. I hope that's enough time to prepare. Even if it wasn't though, what would it change?

"Do not think too much on it, Percy. Enjoy your days here at Camp Half-Blood, it is only your first day. Besides it's almost dinner time." As if it was waiting for his cue, a conch horn blew.

"Well, I guess it's time for the campers to meet you." With that being said we followed Chiron outside. A bunch of campers were outside now, all wearing similar outfits, some made it more stylish than others. They were all heading to the pavilion, I'm guessing for dinner.

"Nico, Grover I suggest you sit with Percy for today so he can follow rituals." Grover and Nico nodded as Chiron pointed towards an empty table. I wonder what rituals he was talking about? Did we have to pray? I was never really good at doing that. Honestly, if I was ever really talking to god..or gods, in this case, it'd be a pretty awkward conversation.

After everyone was seated, people popped out of trees. There is no sarcasm at all in that statement. Girls, to be exact, popped out of the trees and came out of the woods with plates of food. Fruits, bread, and barbecue. If I wasn't so hungry and if the food didn't smell so good I probably would've fainted. I decided to faint after I ate, though.

After I loaded my plate, I was about to dig in but Grover and Nico stopped me.

"You got to give a portion to the gods." Nico explained as he got up. I noticed everybody else getting up and scraping the best part of their plates into a fire. Gods like the smell of burning food? If that's not weird, I don't know what is. I stood in line behind Nico, anyway. Nico scraped some giant strawberries into the fire and muttered something that sounded like Hades.

As Nico stepped aside I scraped my pile of grapes into the fire. Again, I was surprised. The smell of the burning grapes was amazing. It smelled like all the best foods in the world. "Uh, Poseidon." I muttered after I got over the smell and walked back to the table with Nico.

After devouring our food, we sat and talked. Apparently, we have a campfire sing along after dinner.

When everyone was done Mr.D stood," Much to my disappointment, I suppose it's my job to tell you brats the activities of this week. There will be Capture the flag this Friday. And we also have a new camper, I advise you all treat him with respect he's a son of The Big Three just like Rico over here. Pierre Jenkins." I probably would've laughed at him for getting Nico's name wrong if he didn't do the same thing to me. Seriously, Pierre Jenkins? So, much for ' _treat him with respect_.' Chiron whispered something in his ear.

"Oh. Percy Jackson. Son of Poseidon. Hurray. Congratulations. Anyway, you all may proceed outside for the bonfire." I think my dislike for Mr.D just increased greatly.

"Don't worry about that, Pierre. He does that to everybody." Nico said.

"Oh, I can see that, Rico." We glared at each other while Grover laughed at us.

After the sing along everyone was sent to their cabins. As I opened the door to my cabin the smell of sea salt hit me. It was great. I'd always loved the sea and now I knew why.

Before going any further, I tripped over a shoe box. Who would put that there? I picked it up and looked inside. A note.

 _ **Percy,**_

 _ **I was told it's good luck to keep a souvenir of your first monster, so here's the minotaur horn that you used to beat it. We're gonna need some.**_

 _ **Grover**_

I laughed as I picked up the minotaur horn, it had dried blood on the tip of it. You gotta love Grover. I fell asleep with the smell of sea salt in my nose, a minotaur horn in my hand, and a smile on my face.


	7. Chapter 7

"Percy, you take guard at the creek, Chris you.." I zoned out after hearing my position as I put on my armor. If you haven't guessed it by now, today is capture the flag. Chiron said he would watch us closely to see how well we have improved, but I haven't seen him yet so I figured he was running late or something. Honestly, I don't think I've improved much anyway, none of the swords I've practiced with suited me well.

In the five days I've been at Camp Half-Blood I've learned a few things, though. One: Ares kids are the meanest, ugliest, and biggest kids I've ever known. Two: If you want junk food, like a donut, for example, you talk to the Hermes Cabin. How they got it though, I had no idea. Three: Do not, under any circumstances, mess with the Apollo cabin. They'll make you talk in rhymes for at least a week. (Nico got a little dose of that) And last, the Aphrodite cabin and Naiads are huge flirts. Of course, I didn't really expect anything less from the Aphrodite cabin, but when I caught a naiad waving, flirtatiously, at me under the water, I almost fell out of my canoe which caused her to giggle like crazy.

Speaking of canoes, I'd say that was the only thing I was good at. I was terrible at archery and I was literally slower than a tree. I understand that with Poseidon being my father that I would be good at canoeing but I couldn't exactly challenge a cyclops to a canoe race, now could I?

When I was about to ask when it started the conch horn blew and kids, that were taking offense, ran off in different directions. I stood my ground at the creek hoping no Ares kids would come this way. The Athena cabin managed to persuade the Ares cabin, the Demeter cabin, and Nico to work with them. Of course, Grover and I called Nico a traitor like any good friends would have, but Nico just protested as he usually did. Grover and I were with the rest of the cabins. Hermes, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Hephaestus. I'd say we had this in the bag, but the Stoll brothers told me to never underestimate the Athena cabin. The Stoll brothers were Connor and Travis Stoll, sons of Hermes, and after getting my wallet back from them, I took a liking to them. They were twins with brown hair and blue eyes. The only reason I could tell them apart was because Travis was taller than Connor. They were pranksters and usually pranked the Demeter cabin.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice a couple of Ares kids coming my way until they were right in front of me.

"Hey guys, we got fresh meat! And he's all alone." The biggest guy said with a smirk on his face. Well, I guess I learned something else today. Ares kids like to play dirty. Which is bad for me.

"You guys know the rules, no maiming." I responded nervously. Getting beat up by a bunch of ugly kids was not on my to-do list today.

"Who cares about dessert? It's time to break in the newcomer." He replied. Well, I guess I was gonna get a free visit to my uncle Hades.

I held the unbalanced sword up ready to try and defend myself in any kind of way. The Ares kids stepped forward and I stepped back. There was no need to act like I wasn't scared, I'm sure my face said it all. We repeated this until if I took another step I'd be in the creek. That's when he swung his sword and I brought mine up to meet his. Seeing as I just felt the force of his sword, I think he really was trying to kill me. I figured I could hold out for about five more seconds. The training from Clarisse, a big Ares girl who insisted on calling me Prissy, wasn't really helping me at the moment. I figured this guy had years of training, too, so my chances of winning was 0. When the pressure was too much I stepped back, into the creek.I'm not sure what happened, but as my foot made contact with the water strength surged through me. I pushed up and the guy backed off. He swung again and I parried easily, shocking them. This continued and I could tell the Ares guy was getting angrier and angrier by the minute because he was getting more reckless. When he swung again, I hit the hilt of his sword and twisted sending his sword flying to the ground, a disarming move Clarisse taught me. Before he could register what happened I flipped my sword and hit him in the face with the base of my sword. Almost immediately he fell to the ground, two other guys just stood there looking shocked. Then one of them finally snapped out of it, "You're gonna pay for that, punk." He said. That seemed to get the other one out of his daze because he started towards me along with the other one. Two against one was so unfair. Gods, I really hate Ares kids. Then, I felt this tugging in my gut and next thing I know the two guys are being blasted in the face with water from the creek. They fell on the floor coughing as a Hermes kid came running across the border with the other teams flag in hand. The Athena kids stopped chasing after hearing the conch horn signalling the end of the game. We won. I looked on the ground at the three kids I'd just beat and decided that I liked Capture the Flag. I liked it a lot.


	8. Chapter 8

"I believe you're ready." Chiron stated. It was Saturday afternoon and he had called us into the big house.

"I've been informed that you, Percy, took on three of our best Ares kids, alone. Nico, you summoned an army of the undead to give a couple of Hermes kids wedgies, which by the way, was uncalled for. If you weren't leaving, you would've lost your dessert privileges. And Annabeth defeating Clarisse is not an easy thing to do." Chiron had that I'm-proud-of-you look. There was only about one time I was given that look and that was when I made it through a whole school year without getting in trouble, or suspended, or...well, you get the idea. My mom had given me this look that one time and now Chiron was giving it to me so to say I was happy would be an understatement. "Now I believe you can handle this, but before I say more, you must accept the quest."

I knew I was going to accept the quest since I couldn't just leave Hestia to rot, but I didn't understand why Chiron didn't want to tell us now. "Why?" Annabeth spoke up before I could.

Chiron waited as if he was choosing his words carefully," I fear..that the information that I have will change your thoughts on what you should do. That is why I need you to accept the quest first. I am sorry if that disturbs you."

"Nothing you say will make me change my mind, I accept the quest." I told him.

"Can your friends say the same?" Both, Chiron and I looked at them simultaneously. Grover was biting whatever was left of his fingernails, Annabeth looked as if she was off in another world, and Nico looked serious for the first time since we've been to camp.

"If Percy's in, I'm in." Nico said. I smiled at Nico and we both looked at Grover expectantly.

He stopped chewing his nails and looked at us,"Yeah, right. Percy go, we go, got it." Then he went back to chewing his nails. Now, there was only one left.

"Annabeth, you have to go." Nico tried. "You're a part of the group, now."

"I'm..apart of the...group?" She repeated.

"Yeah, we come together, we stick together. That's the way it works." Nico explained.

"Since when?" Grover asked.

Nico smacked Grover in the back of the head and if I was standing next to him I would have, too.

Annabeth laughed,"Well, if that's the way it works, then I guess I'm in. And if I'm in a group, does that mean I get to smack Grover in the back of the head, too?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"No!"

Annabeth smirked,"Majority rules." She then smacked Grover on the back of the head. Grover glared at all of us while rubbing his head, but remained quiet.

Chiron started laughing," You four are a peculiar group. Now that you have accepted the quest, Percy, since you are the quest leader, you need to go see the oracle."

"Okay, where is she?" I asked.

"In the attic."

"She lives in the...attic?"

Chiron mumbles something and then nods at me. Well, okay then. I nod and head towards the stairs. After a couple flights of stairs I came to a green trap door. I pulled the cord and climbed up the ladder, I was greeted with the smell of mildew.

The room was filled with greek souvenirs. Flags, shields, weapons. It still had normal attic stuff though, cobwebs were , the door slammed shut. My father may be Poseidon, but I've seen enough horror movies to last me a lifetime. And right about now, this would be the moment where the curious girl meets the killer because she decided to investigate instead of run. Even though I knew that, I still managed to move forward. Then, I saw the woman. I was positive she was dead, and had been dead for a long time. She was shriveled up, sitting on a stool in a tie-dyed she sat up, I swear I almost died of a heart attack.

 _I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo. Approach and ask._

"Uh...what am I suppose to do?" I said after I got over the shock of hearing the ancient voice in my head.

Green mist swirled around and my mom appeared. No, not literally, but the mist created her. "You shall go west to retrieve the forgotten goddess," she spoke," you shall find help when it is needed most, you shall save the heir of the hearth, and you shall see death to succeed in the end."

 _You shall see death to succeed in the end_ is the only line that sent my world crashing down. Did I have to die to bring back Hestia? The woman slumped back on the stool. I already knew she wouldn't come back to answer my questions, and honestly, I'm not even sure if I would have wanted her to.

"What did she say?" Chiron questioned as I walked downstairs.

"You shall go west to retrieve the forgotten goddess, you shall find help when it is needed most, you shall save the heir of the hearth, and.." I had trouble getting the last part out. I mean, who wouldn't?

"And?" Everyone asked.

"And you shall see death to succeed in the end." I'm sure I saw all of their faces drop at the same time. Grover started biting his nails again. How does he even have anything left to chew?

"Percy, prophecies usually have double meanings, do not take too much time trying to figure out the meaning of them." I decided to take Chiron's advice, besides I was never good at puzzles. "Now we must prepare you for your quest. I'm afraid that during the 18 years that Hestia has been gone, the gods have been fighting more than usual. Without Hestia to keep the peace, the gods could destroy each other. I figure they cannot last much longer. Soon they will start to choose sides and a war will break out. You bringing Hestia back will stop this, but you must hurry, the gods have bad tempers and their patience has been wearing thin for 18 years. I don't think they can take much more. I'm sure the monsters you must defeat to save Hestia will not be easy. So be careful."

Well, Chiron sure knows how to pressure a guy. "Don't worry, Chiron. I'll bring Hestia back. No matter what." I told him.

"I'm not worried, Percy. I believe in you; all of you. Now, let's get you ready for your quest." He puts his hand on my shoulder and we walked (or in Chiron case, galloped) out of the big house.

—

"Percy, before you go, I have something for you." Chiron said. He then held out a pen. "It's a gift from your father."

My father gave me a pen? Seriously, after missing 17 birthdays, that's the best he could do? "He gave me a pen?" I took it from Chiron.

"Uncap the pen." I listened and uncapped the pen. As the cap came off the pen got longer and heavier until it became a sword. Celestial bronze with a double blade and a grip wrapped in leather. I take back what I said. Very cool, dad, very cool.

"Thank you, Chiron."

"I am just delivering, you can say thank you to your father when you get the chance. Now, the pen is enchanted so it will always come back to your pocket, so you can't lose it." I had never been able to keep a pen, so that was definitely good news. I nodded as I examined the sword. "It's name is Anaklusmos."

"Riptide?" I asked. Ancient greek had been coming to me more fluently, now that I was at camp. The lessons with the Athena cabin helped that, I guess. Although, I don't think they liked me too much.

"Yes." Chiron confirmed. Chiron and I went down the hill to join the others. "This is Argus." He made hand gestures to a man with eyes everywhere. On his cheekbones, forehead, and hands. It felt like they all were looking at me, which they probably were. It creeped me out like when I was a little kid and I thought self portraits of people were following my every movement. "Argus will take you into the city, but that's as far as we can go. Now do you have your ambrosia squares, nectar, and drachma?"

"Yes, Chiron. I checked." Annabeth answered.

"3 times." Grover added in which got him an elbow to the stomach."Good make sure you iris message me to fill me in. And make sure you don't take too much ambrosia and nectar, it will-"

"Literally burn you up, we know Chiron." We finished for him. Chiron reminded me of an overprotective mom who was trying to tell the older brother all the things not to do while watching his little sister. I found it nice.

We piled into the car and soon we were heading into the city.

"Are we ready for this?" Nico asked as we watched Argus drive away, his hand still watching us.

"We don't really have a choice, but there is one little pit stop we have to make before we start this." I responded.

"Where's that?" Grover asked.

"My home."


	9. Chapter 9

"Oh, percy, you're okay!" My mom said as she crushed my rib cage. For someone shorter and smaller than me, she sure was strong. And even though I was having a little trouble breathing, I loved it. Yes, I'm a mama's boy, but you try sleeping in a cabin by yourself knowing your mom's worrying because you've disappeared and probably called the police. "Where have you been?" She asked after letting go.

"Camp Half-Blood." I answered.

"And they let you go?" She nearly shouted.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Percy, if you went to camp half-blood, you should know that you are a powerful demigod. Now that you know, you're not safe here." My mom looked sad. I know she won't be happy with the news.

"I know, mom, but I'm on a quest." I told her.

"A quest! That's even _worse_." She put her hand over her forehead.

"I know, mom, but I have to do this." I said confidently.

"Oh, you even have that look in your eyes. I hate that look." She commented sadly. I'm sure she was talking about my _you-can't-change-my-mind_ look. I smiled at her as everybody else came in. "Hi Grover, Nico, and..."

"Annabeth. Annabeth Chase. Nice to meet you." They shook hands and smiled at each other.

"Likewise." She then turned to me, "So are you going to tell me about this quest, Percy?"

—

"Percy make sure you keep in contact with me." My mom told me as I grabbed my keys.

"Okay mom." I said as she hugged me.

"I love you, Percy."

"Love you too." I hurried out the door before my mom could give me another hug, she had the tendency to do that. I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask her, but I decided to wait until I came back; if I came back.

"I'm sitting in the front." Nico said

"No you're not, I am!" Grover argued.

"Yes I am!" Nico responded.

"No you're not!"

"Percy!" They said at the same time. They usually did this if we were going somewhere in my car.

"Both of you, get in the back." I finalized and they grumbled as opened the door to get in the backseat. Annabeth laughed as she sat in the front seat and I got in the car.

"Why does she get to sit in the front?" Nico asked.

"Because she's not fighting over it like you two idiots." I answered. Nico and Grover mumbled some more but it tuned out as I started the car. I pulled out of the parking space and drove down the road.

"So where exactly west are we supposed to be heading?" I asked.

"Whaddaya mean?" Grover asked.

"Like does anybody have a specific state in mind?"

"How about we go to Las Vegas" Nico suggested.

"Why Las Vegas?"

"Because I like Las Vegas." Nico said as if it was obvious.

"Okay, Nico's not making suggestions anymore." I responded.

"How about we go by our instincts." Annabeth said.

"Percy's instincts usually lead to bad things." Grover whispered to Annabeth like I couldn't hear him.

"Shut up, Grover."

"Well, my instincts usually leads to good things, so I think we'll be okay. Besides, does anybody have any other ideas?" Well, she got him there. She really was great at that.

"Fine, we go with our instincts." Grover said as I got on the highway.

—

"Maybe we should go to a hotel." Nico said.

"I think we should, too." I agreed. I had been driving for hours and I was getting tired. It was about 3 in the morning and I had been up since 7. Before anybody could protest I got off the highway and drove down an empty road.

"Did you have to choose a dark road with no cars? Dark roads always lead to bad things." Grover whined.

"Grover, it's not like cannibals are come out and try to eat us. Calm down." I replied.

"You never know, Percy."

"Yeah, wel-"

"Percy, look out!" Annabeth yelled. My head turned so quickly, I'm surprised I didn't get a whiplash injury. I slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel to avoid whatever was coming at us head car tilted until it flipped over and repeated the action over and over again. I groaned as the pain shot up my body immediately. There was a piece of glass in my arm and I could feel the blood dripping off my head. I unbuckled my seat and smashed onto the roof of the car. I groaned even more.

"Percy.." someone whispered. I turned over to see Annabeth trying to pull her seat belt off. I could see her shirt dampening on her side. "Percy..they're coming." I looked in the backseat, Grover and Nico were knocked out cold. I didn't have time to examine them before Annabeth spoke again. "They're coming, Percy."

"Who's coming?" I asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think they want to ask if we're okay. My seatbelt is stuck. Help." I tried to unbuckle her seatbelt but it wouldn't let go. "They're getting closer, Percy."

I gave up on unbuckling the seatbelt and tried to think of something else to do. I dug in my pockets looking for Riptide. I searched the ground. "They're almost here, Percy. Hurry!" Annabeth said urgently as I found Riptide. I uncapped it and it grew into the sword, the bronze having a faint glow. I took the seatbelt in my hands and cut it with riptide. Annabeth slammed on the ground as I did. She got a painful look on her face, but didn't say anything.

"We have to get out of the car, Percy." She said. I nodded as I turned and opened my car door. I crawled out followed by Annabeth. I groaned as I stood up and Annabeth did too, while holding her side. The red spot on her side had gotten bigger. I looked over to where Annabeth was looking.

There were two of them. At least we were even, but with Annabeth's side, I was sure she couldn't do much. The men were on horses; pegasus. Over the time I had stayed at camp, I learned that I could talk to horses. Maybe even other things, anything created by my dad. The pegasus that the guys were on didn't sound too happy with them hitching a ride. They were saying words I didn't even know existed.

When they were close enough to be seen clearly, they hopped off. I gripped Riptide harder and I could see Annabeth reaching for her dagger.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Annabeth." The one on the right side said. They were twins, black eyes, black hair, and evil looking smirks; but maybe that was because there was close to no light.

"How do you know my name?" Annabeth asked as she held her dagger tightly.

"It's a secret. Now, you and Percy have to come with us." He replied.

"That's not gonna happen." I said as I raised Riptide.

"Oh, come on, Percy. You don't have to make this hard on yourselves." The one on the left said.

"I prefer things the hard way." I retorted.

He smirked," I like your style, kid, but me and my brother prefer the easy way."

 _That's because you're scared you can't take them. These guys are easy, dude._ One of the horses said.

"Oh really, why is that?" I asked. I hope the horse was right.

They looked uneasy for a moment,"Well, we can't kill our bait, now can we?" Bait?

"You're bait?" Annabeth questioned as if she was reading my thoughts.

"Oh no, Annabeth. You can't get information out of us. Of course, seeing as you're a child of Athena, I guess it's in your nature. I think we've done far too much talking, though." He reached behind and pulled out two swords. I got in my battle stance. I hope the other didn't decide to attack Annabeth, I didn't think she could handle it with her wound.

The one the left charged and swiped one of his swords down. I parried it with ease, but pain shot up my arm. I had completely forgotten about the large piece of glass sticking out of my arm. I'm sure the guy saw the pain that spread across my face because he smirked.

 _ **Get to the water, Percy.**_

At first I thought it was a horse, but this voice didn't sound like a horse's voice. It sounded older, much older than a horse could live. _**Get to the water, Percy. To your right, down the hill.**_ It said. I trusted the voice, but what if they didn't follow and went after Grover and Nico. They won't. _**They want you not them, Percy. You must go or you will not beat them. Trust me.**_

The guy swung again and I blocked it and kicked him in the stomach. While he recovered I grabbed Annabeth's hand and ran.

"Don't run, Percy. You'll just make it harder on yourself." The other shouted. They both ran after us like the voice said. Somewhere along the hill, I tripped and sadly pulled Annabeth along with me. We tumbled down the hill and it added to the pain. Annabeth smashed into a tree and it stopped both of us. Not being hurt nearly as bad as Annabeth I managed to get to my feet. I looked up, the twins were making their way down the hill, slowly. I checked to see if Annabeth was breathing and when she was I struggled to pick her up. I placed her arm around my shoulder and stumbled the rest of the way down the hill. I could hear the twins getting closer but I was two steps away from the pond. I placed Annabeth on the ground gently and stepped into the pond. Almost instantly, the pain disappeared. The large piece of glass slid slowly and painlessly out of my arm and fell into the pond. The wound closed until it was just a white mark. I felt great. They finally reached the bottom of the hill and I got in my battle stance again.

"You can't beat me, Percy. There's no reason to fight me or run." He smiled at me.

"Dude, you talk too much." I said. He gritted his teeth, then charged. He swung his sword, I parried and kicked him in his stomach again. This time he went flying and hit a tree. He slumped down and didn't get back up. The other one looked surprised. He reached behind him and brought his sword out. At least he only had one. He came at me, recklessly. He swung and I blocked it easily. I pushed up and swung my sword down, but he jumped back before my sword made contact. He swung low, I jumped, and hit him with the hilt with my sword. He staggered a little but regained his composure. He swung again and I knocked it to the side and elbowed him. This time he collapsed on the ground. I took a deep breath.

I bent down to Annabeth not knowing what to do, she was barely breathing now. I looked at the white line on my arm, then at Annabeth. Gods, I hope this worked. I lifted up her shirt enough to see the wound. I then placed my hand on her stomach and watched as the water washed over her stomach. The gash started to close until again it was a white line like mine. I kept my hand on her stomach until Annabeth's eyes started to flutter open.

"Percy? What happened?" She asked as she looked around.

"No time to explain. We have to go." I held my hand out and she took it. I pulled her up and immediately started up the hill.

"Come on, we have to get Grover and Nico." She nodded and headed to the car. I crawled in the car and grabbed Grover and pulled him out. I did the same for Nico. They both were still unconscious.

"Now what?" Annabeth asked.

I thought for a moment but came up blank. _**The pegasus, Percy, use the pegasus.**_

"The pegasus." I told her as I put Grover arm around me and walked toward the pegasus that were having a weird conversation.

 _Dude, you came back. I knew you could take them. I told you he could take them, Maury._ The black stallion said to the brown one, who I was assuming was Maury.

 _Blackjack, i told you to stop calling me Maury. My name is Maurice._ I could tell how annoyed Maurice was.

 _Yeah sure, whatever, Maury!_ Blackjack must've been excited he was jumping around as if he was ready for a fight. I didn't know pegasus were such energetic horses.

"Hey, Maurice and Blackjack, we need your help. You gotta get us out of here." I told them.

 _Yeah, whatever you say, boss._ They both looked pretty happy to get away.

 _Anything is better than those two_. Maurice said. _Hop on, boss._

"You don't have to call me boss." I told him as I put Grover on Blackjack.

" _Okay_. Are you talking to the horses?" Annabeth asked. She looked bewildered and it was actually a funny look.

"Yeah, who else would I be talking to?" I replied as I took Nico out of her arms and put him on Maurice.

Annabeth looked at me weirdly, mumbling to herself _Who Else?_ but I chose to ignore it. I went back to our car and grabbed my bookbag. It was probably the only one we could actually take and it held the most important things for our quest. I climbed onto Blackjack and waited for Annabeth to get on Maurice.

 _Where to, boss?_

"Not really sure, yet, but go west." I told him. With that being said, we took off, heading west. _**Good job, Percy.**_

Thanks...dad.

 **A/N: Although the movie was extremely disappointing, it did have pretty good features. Like Percy being able to heal others. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

_Bring back lots of donuts_. BlackJack told me as Annabeth and I walked towards a dollar store. We had been traveling for a long time and I'm sure Maurice and Blackjack needed a break. Grover and Nico still hadn't woken up, even after the ambrosia and Nectar, but Grover had been muttering "food" for the past hour so I figured he was okay. I was hoping I could say the same for Nico.

When we rounded the corner Annabeth pulled me in for a hug. It took me by surprise, but I still managed to wrap my arms around her.

Before I could enjoy the close proximity between us, or even get over the shock of it, she told me the reason behind the hug. "Don't look. We're being followed." As if she had known me for years, she put her hands in my hair and held my head down so I couldn't look. "I said don't look, Percy." I gave a nervous chuckle and muttered an apology.

"How long have they been following us?" I whispered. I figured we had about ten more seconds before whoever was following us got suspicious of the seemingly long hug, not that I was complaining or anything.

"They were flying, too. It's been about a half an hour." She replied. I nodded and stepped away. We went into The Dollar Tree and started browsing. I wasn't sure what we were really looking for. Snacks, drinks, maybe another pair of clothes. I grabbed two boxes of donuts, a bottle of cherry coke, a bag of fritos for Nico, and a bag of garden salsa sun chips for Grover. While walking to pay for the stuff I bumped into someone. I stumbled and she fell onto the floor.

"Sorry." I said as I offered her a hand. She accepted and I pulled her up. She had dark brown eyes and glossy black hair that was in a long single braid. She was a little shorter than me, but looked the same age, nonetheless.

She stared for a while before whispering,"You must be him."

I thought I might've heard her wrong. "Huh?"

"Uhmm.. nothing. Thanks." She responded before quickly walking away. Weird. I picked up the bag of chips I had dropped and went to pay. Annabeth was already waiting at the door, so I payed for my stuff and joined her.

"What did that girl say?" She asked as we walked out of the store.

"Nothing, actually. She was pretty weird. Why?"

"Her and that boy are the ones following us." She whispered as the the girl and a boy came out of the doors. Honestly, they would make terrible spies, they weren't being very discreet about following us. I'll admit the boy was handsome, with cropped blond hair and bright sky blue eyes. He looked about an inch taller than me, with an athletic build and tanned arms. Although, I had the same build as him, he looked a lot more experienced than I was. If they were enemies like the twins I wasn't sure I would be able to beat them as easily.

We reached Blackjack and Maurice and they were exactly as we left them.

Did you get some donuts, boss? Blackjack asked as we approached them.

"Uh, yeah, I got the donuts, Blackjack." I answered.

"You got the donuts for the horses?" Annabeth questioned.

"Yeah. They need to eat, too, ya know." I opened the boxes of donuts and placed them on the ground, not really knowing what to do. "I hope you guys didn't want a certain type of donuts." I said awkwardly as they dug in.

"This is too weird." Annabeth said as she walked over to where we layed Nico and Grover.

"Yeah, I know." I agreed as I sat next to Grover. Since he was muttering about food, hopefully the smell of his favorite chips would bring him out of this coma like state. Before I could get the bag open, though, there was a low menacing growl. Very slowly, both, Annabeth and I stood up and turned around. I didn't know which one of us was more scared. There was a huge black dog, with eyes glowing the color of fire, and large fangs. Before either one of us could do anything, it pounced. The thing landed on top of me, bringing me to the ground, and immediately started cutting through my chest like it was paper. I could feel the pain of it's claws going deeper and deeper with each swipe of its paw. I knew I was done for.

Only two lines of the prophecy came to mind while I was being ripped to shreds. You shall see death to succeed in the end and You shall find help when it is needed most. This couldn't be the end, we had barely started.

 _You shall find help when it is needed most_. Who could help me from this?

And even though I was close to death, I was aware of everything. The screams of Annabeth, the worried voices of Blackjack and Maurice in my head, the blood leaking out of me and spreading onto the ground, and the footsteps. How I heard it through all that is a mystery to me, but I heard it, regardless of my surroundings.

 _You shall find help when it is needed most_. I was hoping those lines were true more and more as the footsteps grew louder and louder.

Maybe I had lost too much blood or maybe the beast had finally did what it came to do. All I know is my eyes closed way before the footsteps reached us.


	11. Chapter 11

I was lying face down. Floating. The waves carried my body up and down. You float on water, yeah I knew that. You didn't breath in water, though, and yet here I was breathing in water. Sea water. I opened my eyes. Where was I? What happened? Questions ran through my mind too fast for me to think of an answer. I felt my chest, no cuts or gashes. Did I live through that attack? How could that be possible? I decided that none of these questions would be answered if I just stared at the bottom of the sea.

I lifted my head and kicked my legs a little to stay afloat. Sunset. How long had I been here? Where were Annabeth, Nico, and Grover? Blackjack and Maurice? I turned around. I was at a beach, far from the surface. I could see the silhouette of a person. I hoped it was somebody I knew. I swam towards the beach. The waves seemed to carry me faster. They had always responded that way to me, I knew why now. Maybe my father had always been with me. I stood as the water got too shallow to swim in. What was left of my shirt hung loosely on me. Completely dry. How could I be in the water and be completely dry? This never happened when I swam in a pool. Maybe it only worked in bodies of water. I didn't have time to think of an explanation and I'm sure if I had it would only give me a headache. The person had become clear now. Her face was covered by her long curled blonde hair and she was looking at the ground.

"Annabeth." I said. When she didn't respond, I said it again. She looked up and I could tell she had been crying. She looked surprise before she stood and ran up to me. she jumped, wrapped her arms around my neck, and her legs around my waist.

"You're alive." She breathed out as she nearly squeezed the life right out of me.

"I won't be for long if you squeeze any tighter." I managed to choke out. I really enjoyed it, though.

"Sorry." She apologized as she let go.

"What happened?"

"That thing..it nearly killed you, but that guy and girl that were following us came and killed it. You weren't breathing so I told them we had to get you to the ocean. You were in there for hours. I..I almost gave up."

"Where are we? And where are the others?" We sat down side by side and watched the ocean.

"We're in San francisco. Jason and Reyna took Grover, Nico, and Maurice to their camp." She answered.

"What about BlackJack?"

"He stayed with me, but then he left. I don't know where he went, though. They come back every hour. They thought that you were done for, but I didn't think you'd give up that easily." She explained.

"You know, Annabeth, I think we're gonna be great friends. You know me so well, Wise girl." I joked.

"Wise girl?"

"Your new nickname." I replied simply.

"You're terrible at making nicknames, _Seaweed Brain_." she responded.

"That was a nice one." I smiled at her and she smiled back. We turned towards the ocean and watched as the sun set. It was a beautiful sight and I hoped no monsters came and ruined the moment for Annabeth and me.

"I'm sorry, Percy." Annabeth said after a while of silence.

"For what?"

"I didn't do anything. You were being mauled to death and I just stood there. I mean what if Jason and Reyna hadn't come? You would have died and it would have been my fault." She said.

"Annabeth, you were scared and in shock. The same thing would have happened to anyone."

"Not you. You wouldn't have stood there and watched, when there's a chance that you could save your friend."

"It doesn't matter. Either way, I'd still trust you with my life."

"Even after that? Why?"

"You're my friend and I can tell it won't happen again."

"I hope it doesn't happen again." She whispered.

"Don't worry." I said as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Not even a minute later a "You're alive!" was shouted from somewhere behind us. We turned around to see the blonde boy from earlier running over to us followed by the girl. Jason and Reyna is what Annabeth said their names were. I stood as he reached us and helped Annabeth up.

"Yeah, thanks for coming to the rescue." I told them.

"No problem. We were kind of..following you guys anyway." He looked really uncomfortable telling us this.

"Yeah, about that, why were you guys following us?" Annabeth asked.

"You knew?" Jason looked surprised while Reyna rolled her eyes.

"You guys weren't really doing a very good job." I said.

"I told you, you were flying too close." Reyna scoffed.

"Well, that's besides the point. We were following you because we got a prophecy and you matched it." Jason responded.

"What's the prophecy?" Annabeth and I questioned.

"Brown and Black travel high, four come to save Vesta captured within the sky, rivals together shall prevail, as thunder and sea save mother and heir." Jason said. Well, that prophecy sounded a lot better than ours. I glanced at Annabeth, she looked like she was deep in thought.

"Okay, how about we talk about this later? Can you take me to Grover and Nico." Even though it had only been about a half a day, I was already starting to miss Grover's nail biting and Nico's unusual enthusiasm.

"Yeah, sure." He said and before I knew it my feet were being lifted off the ground.

"Woah! Wait a minute." I touched the floor again and Jason looked at me expectantly. "What was that?"

"That's how they travel, Percy. They actually fly." Annabeth told me. I looked at them all like they were crazy.

"I'm not gonna like this." I whined as I prepared myself for the flight.

 _Hey, boss, you're back._ I never thought I'd be happy to hear a pegasus.

"Blackjack." I smiled as Blackjack came down from the sky and landed next to me.

 _I thought you were done for._ He said as he trotted around us.

"Yeah, me too. Hey, Blackjack got time for a ride?" I asked. Hopefully Blackjack had a nice horse heart. I liked flying, but flying without knowing how to control myself was not something I wanted to try.

 _Yeah, boss, anything for you. Where we headed? A donut shop?_

"I'm not really sure. I'll get you some donuts, later. For now, you have to follow this guy." I pointed to Jason and I think Blackjack nodded. Jason and Reyna were staring at me while Annabeth had a small smile on her face, probably because of the look on their faces.

"Are you talking to that horse? " Jason asked.

"Yeah, it comes with the whole 'my father's Poseidon' thing." I answered as I climbed onto Blackjack. Annabeth quickly followed my lead probably not wanting to fly solo, also.

"Well, lead the way." Jason looked like he wanted to say something, but I guess he decided not to because he and Reyna took flight with Blackjack doing the same.

—

This Camp Jupiter place looked great. There were ghost floating around all over the place, but still the place looked great. The buildings were laid out in neat grids. The barracks had shady porches, where campers seemed to be leaving. Each dorm had a different collection of banners showing Roman numerals and lots of different animals. An eagle, bear, horse, and many more. There were shops advertising food, armor, weapons, and lots of other things.

There was one building that was really impressive. It had two white columns where guards stood. It looked like a big white old fashioned bank. There was a big purple banner with the gold letters SPQR hanging over the doorway. Jason and Reyna kept walking, I'm guessing we were heading to the infirmary. As we continued walking I could smell all the different foods being made. It made my stomach growl, I didn't even know how long it had been since I ate.

I glanced at Annabeth, she looked like she was in heaven, she stared at the buildings in amazement. We reached a building that I was guessing was the infirmary. It was chaos inside. Skeletons were running around all over the place and the kids were trying to fight them off. Clipboards and pens weren't very good weapon choices, though.

Only one word ran through my mind. Nico.

I ran in any direction, not really knowing where I was headed. When I reached the room Nico was in, he looked pretty pissed.

"Nico! Call them off." I told him.

"Percy! Where have you been?" Nico asked as the skeletons still wreaked havoc on the kids.

"Call them off, Nico." Nico looked exasperated as he snapped his fingers. The room grew eerily quiet as little holes opened up and the skeletons jumped in them.

"Who's the worthless greek, now?" Nico shouted.

"You did all this because they called you a worthless greek?" Honestly, Nico could be really stupid sometimes.

Before Nico could say anything the others came in. Reyna and Jason had horrified faces, but Annabeth looked the same.

"Wow, Nico, you wake up and the first thing you do is terrorize the Romans." Annabeth said.

"Well, the romans should learn some respect." Nico looked accusingly at Jason and reyna as if they committed a crime just for being roman.

"We Romans have respect. Greeks and Romans don't have a great past. So, it is only natural that they don't treat you nicely." Reyna explained. Nico grumbled about something as he sat on the bed.

"Well, excusing that. Can we talk about this prophecy, now?" I asked, hoping we could just forget about Nico's incident."I'm afraid that will have to wait. It's almost dinner time and then we have war games."

"War games?" Nico, Annabeth, and I repeated.

"Yes, we'll explain, later." Reyna answered.

"Hey, Nico, where's Grover?" I asked as I realized he wasn't in the room.

"I'm not really sure. I don't think he's here, though."

"Well, hopefully he shows up soon." I said as we walked out of the infirmary.


	12. Chapter 12

Dinner at Camp Jupiter was great. Anything you could ever want, or at least they had a humongous selection. I got a cheeseburger and fries with a blue cherry coke, something I've grown to like while at Camp Half-Blood. Even though, the food was great, the Romans weren't. Mostly, everyone stared as we sat at the praetor's table as guest. The ghosts kinda sucked, too. They would say, "Graecus." and then disappear, so I guess you could say it wasn't the greatest welcome I'd ever had. The Romans weren't the most pleasant people that's why I was glad we weren't staying long.

I had found Grover just before going to eat dinner, or he had found me. I was walking to catch up with everybody after changing my shirt and he popped out of the ground making me almost have to change my pants, too.

Right about now we were heading towards a field that had a fort that looked like it had cannons and catapults on top of it. I doubt that's all they had, though.

"Romans!" Reyna shouted and slowly everybody stopped talking and looked towards her. "As you can see we have guest who will be joining us for war games, tonight." She gestured for us to come up to her. One by one we walked up, pretty reluctantly.

Reyna introduced us after we all walked on stage. "These are demigods from a greek camp." Kids who didn't already know gasped with surprised looks on their face. "This is Percy Jackson, son of Neptune, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Minerva, Nico di Angelo, son of Pluto, and Grover Underwood, descendant of Gaia." I didn't think the Romans' eyes could get any bigger, but when they heard about Grover they surely did. "Is there any cohort that will take account for them?" No one volunteered. Gods, they sure were stubborn people. After about a minute or so some guy raised his hand. He had black curly hair with blue eyes and for some reason his face was red around his mouth.

"We'll take 'em." He said.

"Yeah, let the greeks go with the fifth cohort."

"Greeks and geeks. Sounds about right."

"You'll pay for what you did, Nico!" A bunch of kids started agreeing with whoever shouted that. Despite the insults being sent towards us, I laughed at the Romans. They were a whole lot different than the kids at camp.

We walked over to the guy that raised his hand. "Hey, I'm Dakota, this is Gwen. Welcome to the fifth cohort." We said our hellos and Dakota explained the game to us. He was really jittery, and I mean like super jittery, he didn't stop moving throughout the whole explanation. Soon him and Gwen went to talk to the other cohorts on our team.

We walked around, most of the Romans didn't want to talk to us, but we managed to find two people who could hold a conversation. Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesques.

Hazel was African American with shoulder-length curly golden-brown hair and gold eyes. She had the the letters SPQR, and one stripe through it on her arm. She looked young, but she was pretty.

Frank looked asian and had a babyish face with brown eyes and black short hair. It looked weird considering he had a large and stocky frame. His tattoo matched the one that Hazel had on her arm.

"So...your father's Pluto?" She asked. Honestly, to me, she looked like she was about ready to pass out.

"Yeah, who are you guys' parents?" Nico asked, he was probably the most interested about the gods than the rest of us. I could care less. Seriously, how godly can you be, if can't even take the time to visit your children at least once?

"I'm the son of Mars or Ares, as you guys would say." For some reason, I didn't think Frank liked that he was the son of Ares.

"I'm the-" Hazel started before being interrupted.

"Hey, guys, as usual, we're gonna be heading in first, so, keep your shields up and do your best!" The girl, Gwen, shouted out. A bunch of groans were sent back in reply.

"Hey Hazel, are we still going through with the plan?" Frank asked as the others readied themselves.

"What plan?" Annabeth questioned curiously as she rotated her dagger. She was probably scaring half of the fifth cohort, she didn't look like someone to be messed with at the moment.

"Well, Hazel can reveal and close underground tunnels so we were-ouch." Frank stopped mid sentence as Hazel punched him.

"Frank, that's supposed to be a secret." Frank blushed a deep red while apologizing repeatedly.

"Forget it, I guess you should just finish telling them anyway, maybe they could help."

Frank nodded before continuing explaining what they were going to do. It sounded good to me, and apparently everybody else cause we all agreed to follow through with it.

"Okay, first line you'll be with Dakota, try to draw their fire to you. Second line, you try to flank them, you can take charge of the elephant, too. Hazel, Frank..umm. You can stay with the greeks, show them what to do. If anyone gets over the wall first, I'll make sure you get the mural crown." Gwen explained, she seemed like a nice person, even though she completely discluded us from the group.

"You guys have an elephant?" I asked.

"What's a mural crown?" Grover questioned.

"You'll see later. It's starting." Frank told us.

Soon, all of us were following Hazel through an underground tunnel, which Grover, for some reason, didn't like. I thought he was all about the Earth. I used my sword for a little light and dirt fell on us as we went deeper and deeper into the tunnel. I could hear people shouting, cannons being shot, and I think I heard an elephant, too.

Before I knew it, we were out of the tunnel and the giant fort stood in front of us. We were on the left side of it and the kids at the top seemed to be too engrossed in torturing the other kids to notice us.

"What do you think you're doing?" I guess I spoke too soon. I looked up and the kid seemed to be turning a cannon towards us. I hope that cannon didn't shoot anything deadly. Water shot out of it at great speed. Water. That's it? I wanted to laugh. Before I knew it, I felt a tugging in my gut and as the water was about hit us, it made a u-turn and headed straight for the kid's face. He was thrown back by the force and and the water stopped.

"Nice, Percy!" Nico congratulated. Frank dug in his bag of arrows. I guess he found what he was looking for and quickly shot the arrow towards the top. It soared through the air and went out of sight. Frank grabbed the golden rope attached to it and tugged on it.

"Okay, you guys go up first, if anybody comes to the edge, I'll shoot them. Percy, you should try to work on destroying those water cannons." The others followed Frank's orders, but I wasn't so sure I could do my job. I looked towards the fourth and third cohort that were supposedly our "teammates." The fact that they were pointing and laughing at the fifth cohort being demolished angered me. Did they not care about their teammates at all? Soon, one by one each water cannon exploded dousing everything at the top of the fort, the fires they had been throwing and the kids. Did I do that? Annabeth, Nico, Hazel, and Grover got to the top with no problems. I looked back at our teammates, they were still pointing, but now they weren't laughing. One by one they started to run towards us, swords and shields raised. The remaining kids of the fifth cohort followed their example. Frank and I climbed up. Grover and the others were already destroying the kids that were still conscious.

"We have to get the banners." Hazel said after everyone was finished. We nodded and headed downstairs. Alarms were blazing everywhere. Our teammates had managed to get in and were now wreaking havoc. The first and second cohort didn't looked prepared for the assault. There was a skinny kid with blonde hair, pale skin, and blue eyes yelling orders but he was quickly silenced with a hit to the head by someone. The rest of us followed their example. I knocked a couple people out with the hilt of my sword, Frank was now using a sword as he had run out of arrows, and Grover was trying his best not to get hit, him not being much of a fighter. Nico had a bunch of skeletons running around giving people wedgies, which he seemed to enjoy a lot. I'm pretty sure the skeletons were giving them to some of our teammates, too. What a way to get on good terms with the Romans.

It was complete chaos. Hazel managed to get on the elephant and ride towards the center of the fort. Man, I wanted to ride the elephant. We followed after Hazel, who had destroyed the doors of the room. The kids looked completely shocked as the cards from their Mythomagic game dropped out of their hands. Wow, these Romans sure were cocky. The room was completely unguarded and the banners were placed effortlessly against the wall. We attacked without mercy. Before the other cohorts could get inside, the teens were unconscious and Frank, Grover, and I were picking up the banners.

Everyone, or at least everyone who was still standing, cheered as we marched out of the fort with the banners held high. Victory felt good. I took notice to the damage as we walked on. Some people were missing eyebrows, while others were even missing patches of hair. Some of the grass fires were just now coming out and kids lay on the ground, unmoving. Was this a normal thing?

"Man, we did awesome! And, Hazel, that tunnel thing you can do is amazing. Your parent must be great, if you can do that. Who is it, by the way?" Nico rambled on, something he usually did when he was excited.

"Umm..my father is Pluto." Hazel replied.

And down went Nico.

 **A/N: These are all the chapters I have completed so far. There may be a few mistakes, but lmk what you think. :) I'm currently working on the next chapter. Should be done in a week or so.**


	13. Chapter 13

"I should've known better than to send those two idiots. Now, not only have we lost our chances at capturing the boy, we've lost our two best pegasus. Was the hellhound successful?" The room was dark, and I could only make out a silhouette of a person. The man who was talking sounded ancient and his voice sent shivers through my spine.

"Well, your majesty, the hellhound came close to killing him, but the Romans manage to come to his rescue. Then, the blonde suggested taking him to the ocean, and, unfortunately, they were able to save him before he bled to death." To be honest, I wanted to show him, how unfortunate it was for him that I was still alive. Then, I realized that the voice was different. Still, there was only one person in the room.

"A child of Athena. I suppose that should have been expected. Tell me, Where are they now?"

"They are taking refuge in the Romans' camp, sir."

"Romans." He said distastefully," They are always ready to interfere, it seems. As of right now, that does not matter, though. We will proceed as planned, is the boy being trained properly?"

"Yes, sir, but if you don't mind me asking, what will we do if the boy strays from his objective?"

"I do mind." He paused for a moment,"Do not worry about the boy. He will do as he's told. He knows nothing, one who knows nothing obeys who they think knows everything." He explained.

"But, sir, that is what I fear." I wanted to know the fears of the guy, but apparently the other didn't.

"Enough. I said not to worry, and if he does do what you think he might, the last thing he'll ever see is my face in the clouds."

As the man finished talking, the dream shifted. I was in a different room, now. The room had no windows and a single door. There was a small cot in one corner and a toilet and a sink in the other. It looked like a prison cell. The only light was coming from the corner of the room, where a boy sat with his back turned towards me.

"Who are you?" His voiced sounded weird, like it was his first time talking. I turned around, but didn't see anybody. The room was empty. "I know you are there. I can sense you."

"How?" I questioned even though, I was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to hear me.

"I would not know. It is something I have always been able to do. Now, since I have answered your question, can you answer mine?" He talked as if he had never heard a conjunction in his life. He stood up and he was actually pretty tall, probably the same height as me. He had long light brown hair that came to his shoulders and light brown eyes. I could only see these things because of the fire coming out of his palm. Yes, the guy's hand was on fire, and he looked completely fine. Did he feel that? Then, something clicked in my head. This had to be Hestia's son. Only the goddess of the hearth could have a child that was fireproof, right?

"I'm Percy, who are you?"

"I am nothing." He answered, his face completely serious. Man, that was cruel.

"Wh-"

"Someone approaches." He interrupted and I turned as a beam of light entered the room. I was woken up before I could see who was on the other side of it, though.

"Percy, get up. Jason and Reyna want to see us." Grover told me before leaving the room. I got dressed before heading outside to join Grover. He took me to the bank looking building and led me to a room where everyone was waiting. Jason and Reyna were sitting in chairs that were made and placed as if they were king and queen. On both sides of them were two dogs, one gold, one silver, both metal. They didn't look like you're average man's best friend. In fact, they looked like they were prepared to drag you into a dark cave and rip you to shreds just because they could do it.

"Please, don't mind my dogs." Reyna said. She must've caught me staring at them and trust me, I didn't need to be asked twice.

In the corner, a skinny boy with blonde hair and blue eyes sat in a little foldable chair. I remembered he was the kid that got whacked in the head during war games. The knot on the side of his forehead was a great reminder. For some strange reason, he had a bunch of stuffed animals hanging off his belt.

"Now, that Percy is here, we can begin." Jason announced.

"Okay, we have reason to believe that you four are the ones the prophecy spoke of." Reyna began.

"We are." I responded, confidently, before she could continue.

"And what makes you so sure of that?" The skinny kid questioned.

"We have come to save Hestia, like your prophecy said. Romans and Greeks have been rivals for centuries. Percy is the only son of Posiedon and Jason, I'm assuming, is the son of Zeus. That's storm and sea. Plus, Hestia told Percy that he would find help in the west. That has to be you guys." Annabeth's interpretation of all this sounded a whole lot better than mine. I was gonna answer with a simple _who else could it be_ , but I definitely decided to agree with her.

"I still don't trust the Greeks." He retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Dude, who cares who you trust? Who the heck are you, anyway?" I snapped. I had known the guy for about five minutes and all it seemed like he wanted to do was piss me off.

"I am Octavian, descendent of Apollo, giver of prophecies." He said, dramatically, and I was waiting for the sound of thunder, but I guess he wasn't important enough for that. The more I thought about it, if he was the oracle of this place, did that mean he was going to get all old and shriveled up like ours? The thought of it made me smile and I decided to ignore him.

"I had a dream..again."

"I can tell I'm not gonna like this." Grover mumbled and I ignored him, too. I explained the dream as best I could, giving them all the important details.

"His face in the clouds? Who the heck can do that?" Grover questioned, even though, he probably already knew nobody knew the answer to that.

"Forget face in the clouds. What kind of weirdo talks to himself about his evil plans?" Nico was always the one to talk about less important things.

"No, there were two people in the room, I just _couldn't_ see one of them. One of their voices was young and the other sounded old, and I mean really, really old." I explained.

"Can we talk about something a little more important instead of whose voice it was?" Annabeth asked, looking slightly irritated.

"Uhm...what's more important than that?" Jason whispered while leaning forward like he was watching an interesting movie.

"Oh, I don't know. The fact that whoever _they_ are, they're trying to kill Percy and it seems like if they don't succeed soon, they're gonna use the boy to do it." Annabeth responded, sarcastically. Well, that definitely got me back on track. I'm glad I could say the same for everyone else.

We talked for a little while longer discussing plans and possible enemies. In the end, we decided that Jason was coming with us as he was clearly apart of the prophecy and that Grover would stay at camp. At first, I didn't understand why Grover would have to stay, but Reyna explained it well enough for me. Apparently, three children belonging to the big three is like setting out a barbecue for monsters all over San Francisco. Since Grover wasn't much of a fighter and he gave off a strong scent, it would probably be smarter and safer to let him stay. Besides, we should probably give him a chance for his nails to grow back. Reyna couldn't come along because someone had to keep the camp in check and if I was here I wouldn't want to leave it in Octavian's care, either. I'd say Nico, Jason, Annabeth, and I were good enough to go by ourselves, but other people didn't.

Frank and Hazel burst through the curtains like bank robbers. They bowed and greeted Jason and Reyna formally before stating their business. "We'd like to go to save Vesta, too."

Before anybody could protest, Nico hopped in,"No way!" He exclaimed.

"Why not?"

"You're like 13 and this is way too dangerous. Go do something a normal 13 year old would do, like go on your first date or something. Take that guy with you!" Nico pointed to Frank, which made him blush.

"It's way too late to start acting _normal_. Besides, I'm sure that when it said Romans and greeks are suppose to work together it didn't mean _one_ roman and three greeks." Hazel retorted. From last night, I would assume Frank and Hazel were a big help, but it would make it extremely awkward for Nico to go on an adventure with a sister he just found out he had. Especially, since he lost his sister, Bianca, in a car crash and it hit Nico hard as she took care of him as if she was his mother. That's when Nico moved to New York and started going to our school while living with a foster family, that he didn't really like.

"I guess you do have a point." Reyna said, and Nico turned on her.

"Weren't you just telling us about how we already had too many people." I wasn't sure who to agree with. Nico was right about us having too many people, but Hazel had a point with us only having one Roman.

"And your prophecy only said rivals would work together, by working with Jason, we are working together." Annabeth pointed out. Nico nodded his head as if he had been thinking that the whole time.

Hazel and Frank looked like they needed to time to reevaluate their plan. "I think you should let them go." Octavian spoke.

"You do?" Frank questioned, looking surprised.

"It's clear that they aren't our best soldiers with them being fifth cohort and all, but I'm sure they both have more experience then these greeks put together. With them along with Jason, surely there's a better chance for us to get our Goddess, Vesta, back." I'm not sure which one of us glared harder at Octavian. The guy was seriously asking for a beating.

"Octavian, please, I'm sure they wouldn't be sent on this quest if they weren't experienced," Jason responded, defending us.

"This guy was almost dead before you saved him and these two were unconscious! That's experienced?" I didn't like the guy, but even I had to admit he had us there.

"And then they kicked our asses in War Games, it was first time we lost in two years. That's experience!"

"Okay, that's enough!" Reyna interrupted before Octavian could say anything else. "It is possible that Frank and Hazel could have more experience than them" Octavian smirked,"but sending that many people on a quest could put all of their lives in danger, which is a risk I'd rather not take."

"Maybe you guys can make a compromise." Grover suggested.

"And who do you suggest Hazel and Frank take the place of?"

"Well, I-"

"No way," I said, cutting Annabeth off. There was no way she wasn't going on this quest with us. Everyone turned towards me," No offense to you guys, but Annabeth is the smartest person here, and to be honest if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't even be here." Annabeth blushed at my comment, which surprised me, but it was the truth. If it wasn't for Annabeth, I'd probably be dead right now.

"How about me, then?" Nico asked. If Nico wasn't in it, I would be losing both of my best friends, so of course I was against it. Apparently it was a good idea, though. Before I could get a word out of my mouth, Jason had agreed, followed by Reyna, and with a little convincing from Nico, Annabeth. I guess Frank and Hazel would replace Nico.

"Great, we get stuck with Death Boy." Octavian mumbled.

"What was that?" Nico's glare even scared me, so it was no surprise Octavian said nothing and backed further away from Nico.

"Working with Romans? I have to say, I did not expect something like that. I guess it does not matter, as long as you save Hestia. Maybe this will put an end to this rivalry." Chiron responded after it finished telling him what had happened, in the past four days.

"Maybe, but I think the Romans will need a little more convincing. They're very...stubborn people." Even after we had won the war games for the Romans, they still believed we were worthless.

"It is understandable. There is a long history -most of it not good, between the Romans and Greeks." I nodded.

"Percy! We're all waiting on you!" Jason shouted from the top of the hill.

"Chiron, I have to go, I'll check in again, soon." I told him and He said goodbye before I waved my hand through the mist and the iris message disappeared. I climbed up the hill to join the others.

 **A/N: I ddon't know why fanfiction made this chapter impossible to upload, but here it is. Hope you enjoy and thanks for the reviews, I really appreciate them. :)**


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